The Black Mirror
The Black Mirror is a point-and-click horror adventure game developed in 2003 by Future Games. The name refers to the ancestral manor of the Gordon family located in England.
After the mysterious death of his grandfather, Samuel Gordon is forced to return to his home Black Mirror Castle after twelve years. Everyone believes his grandfather committed suicide, but Samuel isn't so sure about that and wants to find out what really happened. It doesn't help that Samuel suddenly gets a lot of vivid nightmares and excruciating headaches. Soon, strange and unexpected deaths occur in the nearby village Willow Creek and Samuel gets closer and closer to a dark secret.
Some years after the original, Black Mirror II and Black Mirror III were developed by Cranberry Production. They take place in the 1990s, twelve years after the first game. The college student Darren Michaels is working at the local photo shop in Biddeford, a small town in New England. One afternoon, he meets the beautiful Angelina who promptly gets accused of murdering Darren's boss Fuller. While trying to help her, he realizes things aren't what they seem to be: a mysterious stranger is following Angelina around and Darren himself gets involved in a series of strange events that eventually lead him to the small English village of Willow Creek. He learns about the Gordon family and a century-old curse that is connected with them.
The original is loved by fans for its dense, eerie atmosphere and story, the sequels have more humour, better graphics, and not quite the same depth, but all in all most fans agree they are in the spirit of the original.
A reboot with the same name was released in 2017.
- Aborted Arc: In Black Mirror II, there is talk early in the game of a woman name Kerry who committed suicide in the small Maine town. You never hear of her again once you leave the town.
- Absurdly Spacious Sewer
- American Accent: Darren has a pretty thick Boston accent. The accent disappears whenever Mordred rears his ugly head in Darren.
- And Now for Someone Completely Different: In the last quarter of the last game, the Vatican agent, Valentina, suddenly gets thrown into the mix as a playable character, though you still play as Darren/Adrian at the same time.
- Arbitrary Skepticism: Darren believes absolutely everything he is told about the Gordon family but he won't believe a Fortune Teller even when there's proof that she can predict the future.
- Ax Crazy: Mordred. Whenever Darren/Adrian lays a hand on anything with a sharp edge, Mordred goes nuts with admiration for the weapon.
- Big Bad: Mordred
- Black Eyes of Evil: Darren/Adrian when Mordred soul is taking him over.
- By-The-Book Cop: Constable Zack
- Cain and Abel: Marcus and Mordred, the founders of the castle
- Consulting Mister Puppet: Poor Ralph and his "best friend" Mr Bubby.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Samuel
- Deadpan Snarker: Darren
- Dirty Old Man: Darren's boss Fuller
- Domestic Abuse: Mr Biba beats his wife
- The Dragon: Angelina.
- Driven to Suicide: William and Samuel and Darren/Adrian in the third, he almost succeeds.
- Dying Town: Willow Creek
- Evil Me Scares Me: Samuel and later Darren, although not as... horrifying.
- Evil Twin
- Good All Along: The Order of the second game, though they're completely useless at their job.
- Grand Theft Me: In the third, Mordred wants to take over Darren/Adrian's body.
- Happily Adopted: Darren and his stepmother got on well during their life in America. Or so we are told, since she dies in the first chapter before we ever get to talk to her.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Adrian's and Angelina's real mother takes the evil Angelina with her when she jumps into the abyss so Adrian can live.
- Hipster: Darren is of the 1993, grunge variety.
- Adventure Narrator Syndrome
- Infallible Babble: In the second game there's the drunk who approaches Darren and in the third there's Madame Fortuna
- Infant Immortality: Brutally subverted with Vic.
- In the Blood
- Jerkass: Fuller, Murray, Tom, Phil.. Also Darren to an extent in the beginning.
- Luke, I Am Your Father: Darren is really Adrian Gordon, Samuel's son.
- Kill'Em All: Every local Darren initially meets in Willow Creek in the second game is dead by the end of the third (with the except of three characters: Bobby, Murray, and Ralph).
- Kill It with Fire: The horrible fate of Miss Valley
- The Killer in Me: Samuel, complete with Tomato in the Mirror
- Locking MacGyver in the Store Cupboard: At one point Darren is locked in a cell, how does he escape? He uses rust and an aluminum dish to make thermite that he ignites in the lock of his prison.
- Love At First Sight: Darren for Angelina
- Orphan's Ordeal: Something that Darren has to face not once, not twice but three times. When his adoptive mother dies from injuries caused by Angelina, when his newly discovered birth mother sacrifices herself to take down Angelina, and when the last living member of his family, Lady Victoria, dies from her injuries, you guessed it, Angelina is responsible for.
- Playing Drunk: Darren was pretending to be drinking along with Tom to get information from him.
- Police Are Useless
- Shoot Out the Lock: Required by Samuel at one point while trapped in an abandoned mine. The player has to examine the padlock beforehand, revealing a weak point which Samuel can then aim at. Otherwise, it takes two bullets to destroy the lock, leaving Samuel with nothing to defend himself with when the wolf attacks outside the mine.
- Smug Snake: Murray, the owner of the Willow Creek hotel.
- Stuffed Into the Fridge: Dr Heinz Hermann
- The Shrink: Dr Winterbottom in the third game. Definetely well-meaning, but to call her awesome would be too much.
- Twincest: Darren and Angelina. She knows, he doesn't. Although it's never stated if they ever went further than kissing.